News Reports: 3/06

Feature Article from Hemmings Classic Car

Jewels on Wheels
Nicola Bulgari has the means to own one of the finest collections of classic cars in the world. Actually, he has two collections--one in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the other in Rome, Italy. He cares little about the investment potential or winning trophies. He just loves cars--primarily Buicks. To celebrate his enthusiasm for cars, the AACA museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, has a new exhibit, "Jewels on Wheels," which runs through April 2006.

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The exhibition's title is aptly named, since Bulgari is vice chairman of the contemporary Italian jeweler, Bulgari. His passion for Buicks dates to his childhood in Rome, when Buick was the car of choice for dignitaries, diplomats, heads of state and even the Vatican. "I fell in love with the Buicks. To me they were a symbol of America. They had glamorous styling, personality, power and responsiveness. They are luxurious without being ostentatious and offer the quality normally associated with far more expensive import cars." He loves American cars and will spend as much time restoring a Nash as, say, a custom-bodied Packard because the end value of each car is not part of the equation.
For additional information, call 717-566-7100; or visit the AACA museum's Web site: www.aacamuseum.org.
Collectors Foundation Scholarships
The Collectors Foundation, a public charitable group designed to serve the long-term interests of collector vehicles, awarded scholarships and grants totaling $418,000 for the 2005 calendar year. The Collectors Foundation is the successor to the Hagerty Fund.
"The Collectors Foundation is just beginning to fulfill some of the needs within the collector car hobby," Executive Director Bob Knechel said. "We are extremely pleased that our efforts have been able to provide funding for a wide variety of collector car programs--from education and training to preserve the knowledge and resources necessary to further the hobby. With a growing base of support, we look forward to expanding our philanthropic efforts in 2006."
In 2005, some of the bigger grants and scholarships were: $85,000 for scholarships which support 19 students preparing for careers in automotive or boat restoration, design and customizing. And there were $115,000 in capital grants sent to accredited institutions, which needed help to upgrade their teaching facilities or to buy equipment for their automotive teaching labs. An additional $84,000 in museum grants for innovative car and motorcycle museum programs were paid out, and one of the largest grants included $130,000, earmarked to assist the AACA and CCCA, to preserve critical documents and library resources and to computerize both organizations' holdings to make them more accessible to hobbyists.
The Collectors Foundation is a public charitable foundation governed by an independent board of directors. For additional information about the organization and its programs, go to www.collectorsfoundation.org or contact Knechel at bob@collectorsfoundation.org.
Drawing Power
Like most everything else in the automotive industry, the way cars are advertised has changed dramatically throughout the years. Today, there are elaborate photographs of cars winding down mountain roads, but mostly today's cars are positioned in a studio.
Years ago, artists used oil paints, pencils and other media to illustrate car ads; some were so good they appeared to be photographs. Collector Jim Secreto has many advertisements, finding most of them at estate sales. We've all pulled them from magazines, like Life and Look, and these ads are found at swap meets, sometimes at steep prices.
Secreto has made it possible for auto ad aficionados to look at a display at the Detroit Free Library. The exhibit, "Drawing Power," is a fabulous collection of original automotive illustrations from the past 50 years, and it is on display through March 30, 2006.
The exhibit is located in the newly renovated Skillman Branch Library at 121 Gratiot Avenue in downtown Detroit. For more information, call 313-628-2851.

This article originally appeared in the March, 2006 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.